Authorities: Man suspected of stabbing dog at Upstate park

Anderson police are asking witnesses to come forward in connection to an incident that left a dog dead after it was stabbed at a walking track in the Upstate.

A woman and her sister said they were walking their Labrador mix at the AnMed Walking Track on East Greenville Street at about 6 p.m. Tuesday. The woman said she was trying to adjust her dog's collar when it got loose, and ran up to another dog that was being walked by a man.

The dogs began fighting, and the woman said she tried to separate them.

The woman said as she tried to separate the dogs, the man was kicking her dog, and she thought he was hitting him.

The woman said once she got the dogs apart, she found that her dog was bleeding profusely from its side. She said another person who was at the park said that the man had been stabbing, not hitting, her dog.

The woman said when she looked at the man, he said he had stabbed her dog and then he ran away.

The woman took her dog, named C.D. for cow dog, to Hendricks Veterinary Hospital on Greenville Street. Staff at the veterinary hospital said the C.D. died during surgery. The woman said she later learned that C.D. had six stab wounds.

In a letter to police, the woman wrote, "I don't understand why he felt he needed to stab him over and over. The sad thing is that I was worried about his dog first -- then C.D., when we got them separated. I've been told that it was a miracle that my sister or I didn't get cut. However, if I had been injured, there wouldn't be anyone to blame except the man with the weapon."

Police are asking for help to locate the man who they say is about 35 years old and was wearing a black North Face jacket at the time of the incident.

The woman described the man as white with a slender build and bald head.

Police said there have been conflicting reports about the sequence of events on Tuesday, and they want to question the man and speak to any witnesses. Anyone who was at the walking track Tuesday evening is asked to call Anderson police or CrimeStoppers at 888-CRIMESC.